


We were wrong when we were young

by Notker_Storia



Category: Never Have I Ever (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-10
Updated: 2020-07-10
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:48:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25182004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Notker_Storia/pseuds/Notker_Storia
Summary: After considering her mother's point of view for the first time, Devi decides to agree to the move to India. That means any longterm relationships are off the table, wether it be Paxton or Ben.But what happens, when Devi returns to the states for college?
Relationships: Ben Gross & Devi Vishwakumar, Ben Gross/Devi Vishwakumar
Comments: 1
Kudos: 21





	We were wrong when we were young

**Author's Note:**

> I never wrote a fanfiction before in my life, but when I got around to watching this show on Netflix, I knew I just had to. Devi's and Ben's dynamic reminds me so much of me and my first love in High School. This is basically me imagining how things could have turned out for us and Ben and Devi.  
> (Not to say I am still pining after this boy, we are friends now actually, but I guess you never quite forget teenage love.)

Ben was staring at his iPhone. Ironically, his dad had surprised him with the newest model, that was not even released, when he got home (Tim Cook was a client of his). It had been lying on the dining-room table, stark white packaging against the black surface. And it was ironic, because now he was mustering it skeptically, worried that it was not working properly. That maybe, the SIM-card hadn’t connected or that his old conversations hadn’t been loaded onto his new device and a message or two got lost in the vacuum of time and space, never to be read.  
But the longer time went on (and after he checked his old phone) Ben had to admit, that Devi simply hadn’t called. Even though she said she would.  
This day had been a chaotic culmination of everything Devi. Arguments with her friends, road trips, her dad’s ashes being scattered, that damn kiss. Kisses. Make-out-session. Emotions everywhere, tears, people panicking, yelling around, running places. Ben was exhausted. But he could not swipe the grin off his face, even when he tried. And he did attempt to when Patty saw him walk through the door. In that moment he thanked his parents for the fruitless attempt to buy his love with state-of-the-art technology, because he could blame his good mood on it.  
Around eleven, Ben decided to just accept that his phone would stay silent, put on his sleeping-mask and pulled the blanked over his head. He tried to ignore the sudden sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.

“Are we just not talking now?” Ben asked, when he saw her standing by her locker after classes. He didn’t mean to, he had his pride as well, but he simply could not help it. Devi had avoided his eyes the entire day and he was tired of it. Nothing that had happened warranted this reaction. They had shared mind-shattering kisses two days prior, her cousin had interrupted them by knocking on the window 5 minutes in and Devi had rushed out of the car, promising to call him later. Evidently, she had not.  
“We are talking, just right now?”, Devi looked at him critically, but he saw her gaze flutter to the floor for a second.  
Ben had enough: “Devi, if you want to Trump your way out of this and just deflect everything I’m saying, I can leave.” He grabbed his bag and started walking towards the door, before remembering, that he actually needed to attend the weekly MUN-debate and that was the opposite direction. Apparently, it was one of those days. With as much confidence, as he could muster, Ben turned around and walked past Devi, to the classroom, where MUN met. He felt her questioning look, but she didn’t say anything, so he didn’t either. Stupid of him, to even miss her sarcastic comments.  
MUN-debate was disaster. Another area of his life that was destroyed by hurricane Devi, only wreckage to be salvaged. Now that his fellow delegated ceased to accept his authority as board, people were trying to declare war left and right. This was not how MUN worked (or what diplomats did, for the matter), but whenever Ben tried to call everyone to order, he was told that he, as board, needed to remain neutral and not intervene with the political process.

In the evening Ben ordered a pizza and decided to take a leap in the pool. But alas, Devi was standing in his foyer, when he came down the stairs with a towel wrapped around his shoulders. He forgot he gave her a key when she lived with him.  
“Dude, how on earth are you that fit? You notoriously suck at everything that requires movement. And are those pink turtles on your swim trunks?”, she checked him out in a way that made him feel not great.  
“The brand is huge in Europe right now, you wouldn’t know.”, he defended his choice of clothing -a gift from his mother.  
“Yes, the ancient question: Is he gay or European. The confusion makes more sense the longer I look at you.”, Devi fired back.  
Ben couldn’t help but smirk: “Big words from the girl, who showed up at this boy’s house in the middle of the night.”  
“Want to take a walk?”, Devi asked, changing the topic so fast it gave him whiplash. Normally she would have commented on how it was 7pm, not night-time and made an obvious joke about his bedtime.  
“Sure.”, he said, looking down his body, “But let me change into something not made for the water first.”  
Devi threw him an embroidered Gucci-Hoodie, that hung on the coat rack close by the door. “Come on, Anna Wintour. The swim trunks are fine. Well… at least they aren’t more ridiculous than any other item of clothes you own.”  
Ben refrained himself from commenting that the Gucci-colors clashed with his swim trunks – not in a good way - and chose to just pull the sweater over his head and slip into a pair of sneakers. He wanted answers more than he wanted a coordinated outfit.  
They walked in silence for a while and the streetlamps cast a warm glow over them. The minutes ticked by, but Ben was determined to not take the first step -not this time. Devi had decided to show up at his house after ignoring him for two days, so the ball was in her court.  
“Paxton texted me, you know?”, Devi said slowly.  
Ben knew immediately that he wouldn’t like what was coming next, but asked anyway: “Oh? What did he want? Did he get confused over the fact, that turkey and Turkey are two different things?”  
“Well, actually he wanted to hang out.”, she blushed. Now Devi was concentrating intensely on her sneakers.  
Ben was really out of his depth and he hated that feeling, so he started rambling: “What does that have to do with me? Just because we kissed for a while? Or because I have experience with Shira? Do you want my advice?”  
“I mean, we’re friends, right?”, Devi stated hesitantly and after Ben nodded, continued, “I guess that’s what I want to know. Because after I went home on Saturday, I thought about it and … well. No one ever stays friends with their ex.”  
“Good thing, we were never in a relationship then.”, Ben chocked out. This bait-and-switch Devi was pulling confused the hell out of him. He spent the weekend overthinking whether she even liked him like that and here she was, contemplating their break-up.  
“Exactly dude! I knew you would understand. If we continued this and caught feelings, statistics are against us. No one stays with the person they kissed in Sophomore Year. And losing our friendship over something as stupid as teenage sexual frustration and one kiss would be sooo not worth it.”  
“Yeah, catching feelings would be a bummer.”, Ben offered unconvincingly. Devi was too confident of her perfect conclusion to notice the look in his eyes.  
“Also, I’m moving to India after this year?”, she formed as a question, just as they circled back to Ben’s house.  
Ben looked at her in shock. All this talk about friendship… for nothing? “You are moving. To another continent.” Devi fiddled with the keypad that opened the front gate, to let them both in and Ben tried to not be pleased with this display of domesticity.  
“Well, kinda.”, Devi offered a shrug, “When I went back to my place on Saturday my mom was an emotional wreck. I guess it made me understand why she wants the support-system she has in India. I don’t know if you met my mom, but she isn’t really the type to have friends to bond with.”  
“But you are the type to have friends to bond with, David! She can’t just rip you out of life!”, Ben retorts stoically. Being just friends with Devi, he can deal with, easy. Living on opposite ends of the worlds, he cannot.  
Devi turned to him harshly: “She won’t rip me out of anything, Benjamin. What am I to anyone, but the girl whose dad kicked the bucket in front of everyone and who sat in a wheelchair for three months after that? I am so fucked up since my dad died. And I see him everywhere all the time. And when I don’t miss him for a second, I feel so guilty. And I can’t even talk about it, because I break down every time I do.” Her nose was snotty, and tears were threatening to spill. Ben’s heart broke a little for her. She really looked like she was carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders.  
Since he didn’t really know what to do, he took her in his arms. “And you’re sure moving will fix any of that, Devi?”  
“I just know that my mom needs this. And I know that I wouldn’t hate not having a past for a little while. Because my past sucks. Well, like, the last year of it.” Devi was hiding her head against his body and Ben had to force himself to ignore the smell of her coconut-shampoo.  
“Have you talked to Eleanor and Fabiola?”, Ben asked after a while of stroking her head in a hopefully soothing way.  
“No. We just made the decision over dinner. And then I came over because I realized that we should sort this situation out asap.”  
“I guess planning a cross-continent-move excuses being a little inattentive for two days.”, the boy shrugged off. His heart felt so, so empty. But there wasn’t anything to be done now, so his only option was to soldier on and deal.  
“Thanks, Gross.”, Devi began to wipe her tears away with the hood of his sweater, “On another note, did someone slide a pizza under your gate, while we were gone?”  
Ben had to laugh, but it was true: someone had pushed a pizza carton through the crack between driveway and gate. “Oh yeah, I ordered it before you showed up in my foyer, messing up my plans for the evening. I guess the pizza-delivery man decided to drop it off this way when no one answered, because I already payed for it.”  
“Eating and going for a swim. I didn’t know you were such a bad boy after all, Gross.”, Devi teased, pointing at his swim trunks. She was smiling again, at least a little.  
“Well, do you want to be bad with me? I ordered my usual on the app and forgot that we changed it to an extra-large pepperoni for movie nights.” He didn’t. He just wanted the same damn pizza they always had and pretend that things were the same they were last week. When Devi still talked to him and lived with him and flirted with him occasionally and decidedly wasn’t moving to India. Eating alone got old real fast.  
“I would take a slice. But I should get going. I didn’t even tell my mom I was going out.” Devi looked at him apologetically.  
So, Ben handed her a slice of pizza, hugged her goodbye for longer than was strictly-platonically acceptable and waved her off at the gate. Disheartened, he took his way-too-large pizza and made his way to his bedroom, deciding to binge a show on Netflix and stuff his face with pizza, instead of doing any physical activity. On that night, he really felt like the loneliest boy in the world.


End file.
